The Pyongyang Metro is the pride of North Korea's capital city. Each day, some 700,000 people use its two lines to get around. It is also as immensely creepy as anywhere else in that country.

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The folks at Wired recently took a tour of the North Korean subway system, which they captured in a photo gallery and the video below. It sounds like a place that is simultaneously eerie and fascinating, complete with graffiti on the subway cars from their previous lives in Germany.

The underground stations are ornate but dimly lit: patrons squint to read posted newspapers while patriotic music echoes faintly across the stone floor. Most of the 16 public stations (there are rumors of secret, government-use-only networks) were built in the 1970s, but the most grandiose halls – Puhoong and Yonggwang – were constructed in 1987. Mosaics and metallic reliefs extolling the virtues of North Korean workers and landscapes line the walls.

And of course, each car has photos of previous presidents Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, perpetually smiling down at the passengers.